A variety of single use, disposable products such as gloves, facemasks and the like are packaged in dispensing cartons. These dispensing cartons frequently have a tear-out opening or dispensing orifice cover.
Exemplary cartons or carton modifications for dispensing a variety of products including surgical gloves, tissues, dust mitts, and disposable gloves, are described at, for example:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,152 for “Surgical Glove Carton” issued to Allen on Jul. 17, 1973, describes a flat, sterilizable carton that is configured to store a pair of surgical gloves for an extended period in sterile condition and then “snap open” to a flat configuration and also lock in the flat configuration to present the surgical gloves to a user on a sterile field of cardboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,936 for “Medical Glove Dispensing Enclosure” issued to Arizmendi on Sep. 5, 2000, describes an envelope made of tubular net material that is stretched around a glove dispensing box or the like such that a sphincter closure in the net material is located over an opening in the dispensing box. The sphincter closure is made by cutting a hole in the net material and weaving an elastic band around the hole.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,175 for “Dusting Mitt Dispensing System” issued to Shiffler et al., on Dec. 3, 2002, describes a dispensing system for dispensing dusting mitts that have a thumb that is folded and arranged to present the thumb at the top of a stack of mitts. The dispensing system includes a carton having a top cover that pivots along a top seam at the back of the carton. The top cover contains a perforation pattern that forms an access flap when the perforations are severed. The access flap is integrally connected to the top cover along a seam to provide access to the contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,714 for “Container Allowing Choice of Multiple Openings for Dispensing Preference” issued to Kruchoski et al., on May 3, 2005, describes a dispensing container for dispensing sheets in which the container has a first dispensing opening for pop-up dispensing of sheets such as facial tissue. The container has a second opening to provide group dispensing of a plurality of sheets simultaneously without having to disassociate the sheets from each other. The openings can be overlayed on each other, or one opening can be placed on one portion of the container and another opening on another portion of the container to provide a consumer with various dispensing options.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2007/0210096 A1 for “High-Volume Package Dispense” by Ellswood et al., published on May 3, 2005, describes a dispenser package system for protective articles, having a substantially vertical product storage orientation and package design. The package includes a double or multi-chambered dispenser unit that can provide within substantially the same footprint as a conventional dispenser container a greater volume of product. The package can store and dispense at least 50 percent, up to about 200 percent or greater capacity than conventional dispenser for protective article products such as gloves or face masks.
While these cartons or carton modifications for dispensing a variety of products provide improvements, the each fail to recognize or address the need for allowing a user to select a first orifice to access the interior of a container and subsequently expand the orifice to enhance access to the interior of the container. These cartons or carton modifications also fail to recognize or address the need for allowing a user to select between two different sized orifices at the same location on a carton. Meeting this need is important because carton sizes are increasing and the larger cartons present difficulties dispensing individual products such as examination gloves as the quantity of products become depleted to a level that the products are no longer located near the orifice. The need is particularly apparent for larger volume packages having contents that may settle or become difficult to access, particularly in a health care environment.